The Internet has quickly become a popular means for transmitting information because of the world-wide access it provides to information resources. The information on the Internet is available in a variety of formats and it can have educational, entertainment, or business purposes. The World Wide Web (the “Web”) is one of the largest and most popular distributed computing networks that make-up the Internet. The Web comprises interconnected computers from around the world. A computer connected to the Internet can download digital information from Web server computers. The Web comprises resources and clients that communicate digital information and instructions typically using a format known as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). These instructions can include information for formatting text, linking to digital data, and receiving digital data.
One of the assets of the Web, world-wide interconnectivity, can also be an obstacle in that people around the world speak different languages. The information generated by Web server computers is typically in one language. A further problem is that languages often have distinct formats (regional settings) for information pertaining to dates, times, currencies, and counting numbers. For example, the date Oct. 23, 2000 is expressed in the United States as 10/23/00, but in Europe is generally expressed as 23/10/00. These constraints limit the usefulness and value of the Web server computer on a global scale.
The conventional approach to solving this problem is to design a single Web page in one language with its regional settings that permits a client to choose a language from a limited list of languages supported by the site. Copies of the Web applications are reproduced in the languages supported by the site. The regional settings for each copy are also modified to correspond to the language of that copy. Once the client makes a language selection, it is directed to one set of the Web applications in the chosen language.
The conventional approach is a labor-intensive solution in that a separate set of Web pages or Web applications must be created in each language with the correct regional settings. Any time the Web application is changed or updated, each version of the Web application must be changed to make the language and regional settings current. Maintaining a separate version of the Web application for each language and its regional settings is time consuming and limits the practical ability to support many different languages.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need in the art for a method and system which will allow Web applications to support many different languages and their regional settings. Specifically, there is a need for Web applications to provide content in various languages without separate versions of the application for each language. There is a further need to change Web applications and keep them current without having to alter the same element in each version of a Web application.